


Anatomy

by Goober



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Dissociation, Fluff, Haunted Houses, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, myspace au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-13
Updated: 2016-10-13
Packaged: 2018-08-22 04:41:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8273227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goober/pseuds/Goober
Summary: The glint of the fake blood could look real if he shifts a little, the paleness of Kylo’s skin making it unnervingly easy to imagine Kylo laying on a real autopsy table. He places a hand on Kylo’s chest and steadies his thoughts to the soft rise and fall of his boyfriend’s lungs.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [porcelain_cats](https://archiveofourown.org/users/porcelain_cats/gifts).



> Originally for the Haunted House prompt for Huxloween but it became a thing all of its own
> 
> Inspired by the Myspace AU

Haunted Houses are a staple of Halloween. At least, Ren insists they are.

Hux crosses his arms and scowls, looking from Kylo to the car parked in the driveway. The light inside shows three figures and  _ of course _ he would bring his idiotic friends to Hux’s house. Part of him wishes that he had never brought Kylo over the first time, but he’s actually impressed his boyfriend managed to find the house on his own.

“No.”

“Please, Hux.” Kylo frowns, pouting out his lower lip in a way that pulls his lip ring over his front teeth. It’s silly, and childish, but it goes well with the big brown doe eyes he’s sporting. As always Kylo’s eyes are practically glistening with the glittery eyeshadow, thick eyeliner, and frame of his overly long lashes. “You promised we would do more things together, and I already have your ticket.”

“I could have homework.”

“You don’t; you always finish your work exactly by 6, and it is now 8.”

He’s not sure what this says about him. 

Hux looks Kylo over and sighs. Despite it being nearly 60 degrees out — 16 in celcius, his mind supplies — his boyfriend has decided to wear a neon purple and green tank top and ripped up black jeans. He can see Kylo shivering from where he stands in the doorway, dressed sensibly for the weather, and isn’t sure if he should offer Kylo some kind of jacket. He doesn’t. The moron can freeze out his poor fashion choices.

“Hux you promised.”

The look in Kylo’s eyes is dangerously close to watering, and as much as he would like to see his cheeks stained with streaks of his ridiculous mascara, Hux actually wavers.

He had promised, after the last time they went out. Kylo decided it would be fun to go roller skating and Hux promptly ended the outing early when Kylo cracked his nose against the wall. Hux maintains it was an accident. He’s not entirely sorry.

“Alright,” Hux concedes.

Kylo’s face splits into the biggest grin he’s seen in weeks and lunges forward, catching Hux off balance and nearly toppling them both over. Instinct tells him he should wrap his arms around Kylo but his annoyance begs to differ. “Stop that,” he huffs, pushing Kylo away lightly.

A honk from the car breaks them apart and Kylo grabs Hux’s hand before giving him a chance to yell out to his mother that he was leaving. Hux locks the door behind him and lets Kylo squeeze his hand on the way to the old sedan.

“He’s coming with!” Kylo announces excitedly as he throws open the back door and climbs into the middle, making room for Hux to sit next to him. Hux glances over the faces of Rey, Poe, and Finn and gets varying expressions in return. Poe is at least trying to help him feel welcome by, unhelpfully, putting a large hand on Hux’s shoulder. Rey won’t stop glaring at him in the rear view mirror like he’s some sort of filthy stray Kylo let sit in the back of her car. Finn looks mildly uncomfortable on Kylo’s other side, glancing at the door like he wants to leave.

“Good to have you here, buddy.” Poe’s voice at least doesn’t  _ sound  _ strained. This time.

“Ren wouldn’t take no for an answer.” Hux pries Poe’s hand from his shoulder and buckles his seatbelt.

“I thought you’d be the most excited about this. Blood, guts, and dead bodies are kind of your thing,” Rey accuses.

“I have no interest in dyed corn syrup and people in masks,” Hux shrugs in return. It would be one thing to go with Kylo but having to put up some kind of front for his annoying cousin is already exhausting him.

“So anyway,” Kylo interrupts, “this place is supposed to be like, really  _ really  _ scary.”

“Do we have to go?” Finn asks in a tone suspiciously close to a whine. “We couldn’t just watch a couple movies or something?”

“Where’s the fun in that? Besides, you have Rey and Poe to protect you, so don’t be such a baby.” Kylo rolls his eyes and leans his shoulder against Hux’s.

He supposes in this scenario Kylo has chosen him as his form of protection. He’s not sure if he should point out what a bad idea that is, or if he should feel some kind of honor about being chosen. Hux remains silent and looks out the window at the streets that pass by.

“We’re not splitting up when we get there,” Rey announces. Hux can feel her glaring at him in the mirror again and fights the urge to sigh at her. What the hell did she think he was even going to do to Kylo?

Hux tunes out for the rest of the short ride to the building. When they pull into the parking lot and exit he looks it over with a precise eye. The place is built to look older than it really is; blackout windows and peeling paint give it a sort of claustrophobic feeling. Though it looks rather small he supposes that it is longer than it is wide, and the fact that he can’t see the back of the building is slightly bothersome. There’s a line out the door, but it doesn’t look very long. All the same he finds himself increasingly annoyed by the presence of other people.

“So it’s a bit of a wait,” Poe explains. “They only let a couple people in at a time, since the place is small.”

“We can wait,” Rey jumps in before Finn can protest. He looks dejectedly at the gravel beneath his sneakers and shoves his hands into the pockets of his jacket. Poe’s jacket, actually.

“Do you want to listen to music?” Kylo asks, pulling his mp3 from the pocket of his jeans. How he managed to fit it in there with how tight the pants are against his skin, Hux will never know.

“Do you own anything other than emo trash?”

“Blood on the Dance Floor is a good band, Hux!” This is a conversation they’ve had multiple times.

“I’ll pass.”

Kylo pouts, the metal in his lip sticking out a second time that night, but this time Hux isn’t budging. Upon sensing this Kylo sighs and unwraps the headphones from around the device, sticking one of the earbuds into his ear. Hux can hear the faint sounds of an unfortunately familiar song; Kylo has the volume up entirely too high. Again.

Rey watches the interaction with a tiny frown, crossing her arms. To avoid having to actually interact with her, Hux grabs the other headphone from where it dangles against Kylo’s chest and shoves it in his own ear.

Kylo’s eyes light up at the gesture and he turns it down a little to avoid having  _ that _ argument with Hux.

The line passes slowly. They’ve listened to an entire album and a half of music Hux could have gone his whole life without hearing. As they get closer to the front Kylo turns off the mp3 and Hux actually finds himself missing the distraction from his friends’ incessant yapping.

“Tickets, please,” a bored teen with slick black hair holds out his hand.

“Mitaka?”

The kid’s eyes brighten a little bit as he actually looks at the group. “Oh, hey guys. You actually got Hux to—” he’s elbowed roughly in the ribs by Finn. “Oh. Yeah. So tickets, and then I’ll let you five in.”

Rey pulls the five tickets from her bag and hands them over. Mitaka counts them and occasionally glances up at Hux, leaving him to wonder if Mitaka thought Hux was a figment of their collective imaginations. He frowned.

“Alright. No cameras or video equipment, if you get too scared you can try to ask one of the workers to escort you out. No promises, some of them are dicks. If you get lost we will have to come find you so the next group can come through.” Mitaka lists the rules from memory and Hux likens him to an AI in one of Kylo’s shitty games. “It is full contact so they will be able to touch you, if you have an issue with this I’d suggest turning back now. Everyone ready?”

The group — save Hux — all nod in excitement, and Kylo grins at him.

Hux is the first to enter the building, leading the way into a near pitch black hallway. As if on cue the lights flicker and turn on to their dimmest setting, settling everything in thick shadows. The door clicks shut behind them and already he can feel Kylo grabbing for his hand.

“We’re not even in the first room,” he huffs, shaking his boyfriend’s large hand from where he grabs Hux’s arm. “Don’t be a bitch.”

The group ahead of them is already far down the hallway before Rey leads the way with Poe. Kylo follows behind them, looking back at Hux and occasionally trying to reach for his hand. Hux is second to last with a stiffly walking Finn behind him.

Lights flicker on and off, animatronic screams and skeletons pop from the walls around them. Hux will give it to this place; as they continue down the walls get closer and closer, giving him a feeling of being caged in. Other than that the jump scares are predictable, and the employees clawing for them are hardly frightening. They’ve tried to grab for him but a hard glare sent their way, and the deadpan look of boredom clear on his face, makes most of them back off.

“You know,” he says, pausing until he and Finn are walking step in step. “They always go for the person at the back of the group. It’s so easy to pull you down one of the side hallways. They could do anything they wanted to you there, and we would never know.”

Hux reaches out and drags his nails across Finn’s back, cracking a smile to himself in the dark when the kid practically yelps. Finn bolts down the hallway, pushing Kylo into the wall and sprinting past Poe and Rey, who call out to him. Just before Kylo can chase after his friends’ pursuit of Finn, Hux grabs his arm and pulls him back. He quiets Kylo’s startled yell with a hand over his mouth, pinning him to the wall.

“We’re going another way,” he announces. Hux lets go of Kylo and heads down the unlit hallway to his left, disappearing into the shadows before his boyfriend takes long strides to catch up with him.

“Hux where are we going? We shouldn’t split up.”

As if on cue one of the actors walking down the hallway spots the pair and leaps at them, grabbing at Hux first and screaming. Hux, unphased, places a palm squarely on the stranger’s chest and pushes them away. They stumble a bit, face unreadable through the mask, body language making it clear they were more than a little surprised.

Hux continues down the hallway and Kylo is quick to follow, visibly still shaken from the previous scare.

The room the hall leads out into is a morgue look-alike. The space is only as lit as the dim overhead light allows it to be, bathing everything in darkness except the shiny, bloodstained autopsy table in the middle. Blood is all over the walls, floor, and cabinets.

“Hux we should find the others,” Kylo says behind him.

He stalks over to the cabinets and finds they are only for show, the drawers nailed in. A shame, really. Hux turns to face Kylo and crosses his arms. Kylo is leaning against the table, arms tight against his body and beanie slightly askew from his hair. He sucks in his bottom lip and crosses the space between them, eyes slowly drag from confused brown eyes down to Kylo’s lips. 

“Get on the table.”

“What?”

In lieu of a response Hux places his hands on Kylo’s chest, pushing him until his back arched over the table. Kylo was quick to scramble up, careful not to kick Hux on accident. He laid back as Hux crawled on the table over him, moving to sit on Kylo’s lap as he stared down at his boyfriend.

The beanie and exposed locks of Kylo’s hair all stick to various pools of crimson corn syrup. Kylo stares up at Hux with a mixture of anticipation and confusion, and when Hux tugs at his thin tank top his brow rises.

“Who wears a tank top in October? Take it off, idiot.”

Though the top was clearly not providing much heat, Kylo shivers as he sits up a little and sheds it. Kylo leans in and presses their lips together, and Hux is stunned for a moment before relaxing into the kiss.

He appreciates Kylo’s continued patience with him, he knows he twitches far more than most people, and that hardly stops during kissing. Kylo’s painted nails dig into the fabric of his shirt, bunching it at the shoulders as he holds Hux still.

“Lay back,” he breathes after several long, messy kisses.

Kylo is quick to lay against the table, propped up on his elbows until Hux pushes his back flat against the cold steel. Hux watches Kylo shiver, eyes intent as they take in the goosebumps crawling across his boyfriend’s naked torso.

“Close your eyes.”

There’s some hesitation before Kylo complies. The glint of the fake blood could look real if he shifts a little, the paleness of Kylo’s skin making it unnervingly easy to imagine Kylo laying on a real autopsy table. He places a hand on Kylo’s chest and steadies his thoughts to the soft rise and fall of his boyfriend’s lungs.

Hux presses the heel of his palm into Kylo’s sternum. He would break it first; to split his rib cage in half, to get into the thoracic cavity. He wonders what Kylo’s lungs would feel like under his hands as he removes them. There would be minimal blood since Kylo would be dead, and there’s a missing pang of satisfaction in reaching his hands in and feeling living, twitching muscle beneath his fingertips. The diaphragm would have to go next, it would only hinder him. 

Hux wants his heart. 

Lifeless, no longer beating, cold and stiff to the touch. He’d take it with him, cherish it. Cherish Kylo. 

Maybe then he would finally figure out how to get all of this right.

“Hux?”

He’s snapped out of his thoughts only by the soft sound of Kylo’s voice. Hux’s eyes meet Kylo’s and fall when they see only concern. When he looks back down at his chest Hux finds that it is not split open, that he doesn’t have to count the ribs beneath his hand, that he doesn’t need to remove anything because it is all still very much alive.

“I’m sorry.”

Kylo’s face softens and he reaches up, pulling Hux down into a kiss. It’s slower this time, less hurried. He shakes a little in Kylo’s arms as they wrap around him, one hand splayed on his chest while the other curls in corn syrup slick hair. He’s terrified.

He’s never felt more secure.

Before he really realizes it he’s lying between Kylo’s legs, one knee hiked up against his hip as they continue to kiss.

“You’re okay,” Kylo reassures him between kisses. “You’re alright.”

Hux isn’t sure how to respond to this — if anything  _ he  _ should be comforting  _ Kylo _ — with anything other than another kiss. One of Kylo’s hands fists in his hair to pull him closer, tongues meeting without much finesse.

He isn’t sure how long they stay like that; Hux exploring the inside of his boyfriend’s mouth with his tongue, counting his teeth like the number has changed since the last time they made out, and Kylo casually grinding against him.

“Whoa — Rey, Finn, I found ‘em!”

The sudden voice throws Hux off so much their teeth clack together. His lower lip gets split in Kylo’s braces and he backs up to press a hand to his mouth.

Immediately he realizes how bad this looks.

When Rey pushes past Poe to cross her arms in the doorway, Kylo doesn’t meet her gaze. “H-hey guys.”

“Hey yourself, we’ve been looking everywhere for you!” There’s a tense silence as Hux moves off of Kylo, leaning against the autopsy table once he is on the ground again. Rey doesn’t stop staring directly at him, eyes narrowing as she orders, “Put your shirt on, Kylo.”

“We should head out,” Poe tries to break the tension. “I think we’ve traumatized Finn enough for one night.”

“I really don’t like these places,” Finn pipes up from the inside of his boyfriend’s jacket. Hux only now notices the figure pressed up against Poe’s chest.

Kylo jumps onto the other side of the table, bending down to reach his tank top. Hux and Rey never break eye contact, though Hux can feel himself twitching under her scrutiny.

“Time to go,” Kylo agrees, slipping his hand in Hux’s and leading the way from the room.

Thankfully they’re near the exit because he doesn’t think he could take much more of Rey’s eyes boring into the back of his head. Hux knows there’s going to be some kind of  _ talk _ about this — mostly Rey talking  _ at _ him — and is moderately grateful that Kylo doesn’t give her an opportunity to corner him before the car.

Excited chatter between Poe, Kylo and a less shaken Finn fills the car. Hux is not unusually quiet as he watches out the window the entire way back to his house. Kylo offers to walk him to the door and Hux has to resist the temptation to slam the car door in his face. No reason to make his friends more weary than they already are.

“I think it went well!” Kylo says, grinning next to him. “I think everyone liked having you there. Maybe we can all hang out again before Halloween. Ooh — or  _ on _ Halloween!”

Hux doesn’t have the heart to point out the tension between him and Rey. Doesn’t quite have it in him to shove it in Kylo’s face that he would  _ never _ fit in with his friends. No matter how often Kylo forced Hux on them he would always be an outcast.

“We’ll see,” he says, noncommittally.

When they reach the door Kylo leans in and kisses his cheek, surprising Hux. “I really did have a good time. Thank you, Hux.”

Hux’s eyes scan over Kylo’s face for any sign of deception, but his facial muscles are focused solely on the large grin he is sporting. “I’ll … talk to you later.” He’s not sure what to say, but it seems to be enough for his boyfriend who leans in for a kiss. This one is different than their hurried make out before, and Hux feels more vulnerable than he had before.

“Goodnight, Hux!” Kylo chirps, turning dramatically on his heel and heading back towards the car. Hux watches him leave before unlocking his door and walking inside at a pace he considers reasonable and not at all fleeing.


End file.
